Depression and anxiety in epilepsy

Factors associated with increased risk have been reported to include: younger (25-49 years) male patients, co-existing psychopathology including personality disorders, temporal lobe epilepsy, personal difficulties including social or work-related problems, prolonged duration of epilepsy, and inadequate control of seizures. Panic disorder consists not only of discrete panic attacks but also an anticipatory fear of them and their consequences which in itself can be disabling; this, together with the short duration and lack of situational triggers in seizures, usually provides the diagnosis, but occasionally panic attacks can co-exist with epilepsy.